Employers’ association engages finance minister’s person of trust as consultant

The Malta Employers Association (MEA) – one of Malta’s leading business lobby organisations- has on its payroll the same full-time consultant and a person of trust for Finance Minister Clyde Caruana.

In what many members consider a gross conflict of interest and a serious dent in the organisation’s credibility and independence, the MEA confirmed that Kirsten Cutajar Miller is a paid member of its secretariat.

According to information tabled in parliament, Cutajar Miller, who describes herself as an economist, has been employed as a person of trust by Finance Minister Clyde Caruana since 2022 and was put on a €70,000 annual financial package.

Concurrently, she is also a consultant and a member of the secretariat of the MEA, which has to lobby the same Finance Minister on behalf of its members.

When asked about this conflict of interest, Kevin Borg, the Director General of the MEA, confirmed that the minister’s person of trust has been a paid member of the MEA’s secretariat since May 2023.

“She was actively involved in published research studies entitled ‘Adapting our Labour Market to an Ageing Population’ and ‘The Low Birth Rate in Malta – An Existential Challenge’, among others,” Borg said.

He did not comment on Cutajar Miller’s glaring conflict of interest between her work as an adviser to the finance minister and her work as a consultant for the business lobby.

“It is obvious to all at the MEA, including at the council level, that you cannot have an adviser in your secretariat knowing all your staff, discussions and negotiating positions at the same time that she is working for your counterpart and the party you are supposed to negotiate with,” a veteran member of the MEA said.

Members pointed out that until a few months ago, the same Director General was also a government-nominated board member of Bank of Valletta.

Cutajar Miller has a chequered history. Until 2020, she worked for the now-defunct audit company Nexia BT, which was involved in various scandalous deals with the government and on its behalf. Its partners. Brian Tonna, Karl Cini, and Manuel Castagna are all facing criminal charges connected to money laundering involving mega government projects.

A few weeks after Nexia BT folded, Cutajar Miller found herself on the finance minister’s payroll as his person of trust.

Apart from her lucrative job at the finance ministry, Cutajar Miller was also given other government positions, including as a member of the Board of Guardian of Future Generations. She also works as a part-time lecturer at the University of Malta.

Cutajar Miller is also regularly seen on state broadcaster TVM speaking as an ‘independent’ economist, mostly every time the government wants to praise its economic policies, particularly during national budget presentations.